This soldier has seen the light.
This video should be played to poor men and women who see enlisting as the only option open to them.
Pass it on to progressive thinking people.
I’ve prepared students for speech contests, so I agree it is a fantastic speech. So what do you think’s going to happen when all those American and Canadian soldiers leave Afghanistan? It’s going to return to the egalitarian state it was before the invasion? The middle-class will arise and overthrow the bad guys? Maybe it doesn’t matter because it’s too far away and the people are just too different. What does Mike Prsyner and March Forward think is going to happen when everyone goes home?
I’ve taught high school sophomores, and I agree, that was pretty sophomoric. Take away the music and the images and you’re left with a pretty flaccid speech. 
He’s probably thinking that they will come home to their families alive and in one piece instead of broken or in coffins. He’s probably thinking that their weapons will no longer be used to generate the suffering that they currently generate overseas. Just a guess.
What do you think will happen, Scott? The world will fall apart without the forceful hand of the US army? Terrorists will rule the world? 
[quote]a pretty flaccid speech[/quote]I don’t think flaccid is the right adjective. I just don’t see the lack of resilience in that speech.
Any chance the picture of the soldier grabbing a young woman’s arm is the actual speaker?
“Our families have to watch flag draped coffins lower into the earth… Millions in this country… must watch this government squander over 450 million dollars a day on this occupation…”
The speech is ‘flaccid’ (soft, limp, flabby, weak) because he’s not screaming, crying or pounding his fist?
If just comparing the speech to radio-only broadcasts, many points will strike significance to listeners. Most progressives already think the way he does. Its the other side that will find the message truthfully unsettling. And for what reason would one want to take away the images? Downgrading the message serves what?
Thank you cake for sharing.
PS - The increased numbers of veteran grave site flags is hard to dismiss as justified.
[quote=“ScottSommers”]So what do you think’s going to happen when all those American and Canadian soldiers leave Afghanistan?[/quote]True one can’t accurately predict the political outcome of either occupied country after US withdraw, but isn’t it pretty easy to predict the continued results of prolonged occupation?
Yes I can.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban_treatment_of_women
rawa.org/rules.htm
Just guessing, but maybe you figure American lives are more important to save than those brown-skinned turban twisters. Just guessing though.
If we were out there fighting for women’s rights, you’d have a point, Scott. But this is not what this war is about. Your point is invalid.
I just don’t think it matters. The American Civil War and WWII weren’t fought for the reasons we are now glad they were fought. It’s clear what’s going to happen the situation of women in Afghanistan when the Occupation leaves. You might think American passport holders shouldn’t be put in danger for that. I disagree.
[quote=“ScottSommers”]Just guessing, but maybe you figure American lives are more important to save than those brown-skinned turban twisters. Just guessing though.[/quote]No sir. Neither do I entertain racist tendencies or accusations.
But it sounds like you support the projection of our so-called values on foreign populations through a barrel or worse, torture, in the name of our own ‘national insecurity.’ Did you consider arguing that Saudi Arabia should have been W.o.T. victim #1?
Sounds like you’re assuming that American soldiers are recruited for and continue to fight on behalf of “Afghan women’s rights”? That’s as valid an argument as our soldiers’ actions there plus the continued operation of Bagram Air Base dungeons & CIA black rendition bunkers are justified because they are maybe fighting to rid the world from Afghan’s dangerous narcotics. LOL.
You may have already read this… its a letter from one Afghan woman to Obama.[quote]Do you think that your army is useful here? Or that it will bring peace? You are wrong if you do. I witnessed a mother and son who lost their lives crossing the road. The American army thought they were terrorists, but they were trying to find money to support their family. This is how we lose members of our families. How many people will die? We don’t know.
…
We need to build our own country. We want to stand on our own feet. We want to be independent.
The presence of the American army, or any army from another country, does not bring peace. Never does it save our people’s lives from war or from suicide. It will continue. It will get worse. When an army comes from another country, our army gets lazy. They have no incentive to do their job. They think the government doesn’t believe in them.
What we really want is to make our people educated. Give them the chance to get a higher education and come back to serve their people. That is what would help the Afghan people: instead of sending an army to kill, send teachers. Show my people how to work together.
My wish, President Obama, is to make Afghanistan independent and the people hard-working and able to walk on the road without fear. To be able to delete the word of “poorest” when describing my country. So send your people, if you must. But send them to inspire, and to teach in peace.[/quote]
[quote]The American Civil War and WWII weren’t fought for the reasons we are now glad they were fought.[/quote]There is something not quite right with this statement. The reasons remain the same. Only the outcome may vary. But a positive outcome to an evil deed doesn’t put evil in a better light.
You weren’t insinuating that foreign soldiers should stay there to save Afghan women from unequal, unfair treatment? And its not the same as saying they should remain fighting to reduce/redirect narcotics traffic?
And regarding intellectual ‘advice’, why would one think the longer foreign soldiers try controlling through force and violence as a way to implement their own /ways of life, women there will have better and brighter futures? Simply because they had no rights under Taliban, a war torn nation of prolonged fear, bloodshed and foreign occupation will help them in the end, maybe? I’m in favor equal rights, but justifying foreign occupation as if it will eventually provide the solution is wholly unrealistic.